At UN, Tony Blair Scoffs At His $1 Million JPMorgan
Job, But Conflict of Interest Safeguards Not Seen

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS,
September 26 -- Tony Blair as in
the UN on Friday, as part of the Middle East Quartet. He is working for
the UN,
while also having private sector engagements, such as a $1 million a
year job
with JPMorgan Chase, a bank which just benefited from the subprime
meltdown by
scooping up the assets of Washington Mutual's savings bank at the fire
sale
cost of only $1.9 billion. On September 25, Blair's successor as UK
Prime
Minister, Gordon Brown, spoke at length at the UN about financial
matters.
While US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson did not find time to meet with
Brown
-- it's been billed as Snub-Gate II -- President Bush did meet on the
topic
with Brown on Friday, as well as taking a call from France's Nicolas
Sarkozy.So it is not unreasonable that
Blair would be willing to answer a financial question at the UN on
Friday.

But not,
apparently, if the question concerns a possible conflict of interest.
For
months, Inner City Press has asked the UN Secretariat, including Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson, about the possible conflict of working for a financial
firm as
well as for the UN.

Blair, pensive or praying -- where is JPMorgan Chase in his thoughts?

These questions
were initially about only Tony Blair --
"ask Blair," the Spokesperson said -- but have widened to include
Australia's Alexander Downer, with a financial consultancy while being
the UN's
envoy to Cyprus.

As Blair
was leaving the UN's Quarter meeting, Inner City Press asked him, "That
JP
Morgan Chase job, do you still have it?"Blair looked incredulous and let out an audible
scoff. One of his
assistants indicated that yes, Blair still has the job. And then they
were
gone.